Thursday, September 27, 2012

Our daughter started preschool a couple weeks ago and now our whole family has that nasty 'back to school' cold that every family with kids gets every year at the end of September.

I like chicken noodle soup when I have a cold, but I feel too sick to make it from scratch, and canned soup has this gross aftertaste that lasts for hours. I need something easy, but with less chemicals than those little packets of instant soup. So I mix it up...

I had my soup with some crackers I found when foraging in the cupboards.

This soup was very good, almost as good as from scratch! You can make several batches of it and store them in ziploc bags for fast use when you're too sick to bother. Which is exactly what I'm going to do, we've got a long winter ahead with many many colds to come...

Monday, September 24, 2012

Last year on my birthday I wished for another baby. I got pregnant a week later. This year I wished for a rotating Belgian waffle maker. Once again my birthday wishes came true.

The past week has been a glorious celebration of waffles. I made a big container of waffle mix and whipped up all kinds of waffles whenever my heart desired, breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert. Waffles know no clocks.

Waffle Mix (big batch- makes 4-5 batches)

6 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
2 teaspoons salt

What else you'll need

1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil

Combine 1 1/2 cups of mix with milk and oil and stir well. I had a little helper who was very excited about the prospect of waffles.

Pour the batter into the preheated waffle maker.

Cook until golden brown

Because of our egg intolerance, these waffles are egg free. It's a little known fact that many baked goods (especially waffles and pancakes) don't actually need eggs in them at all. I also omitted the powdered milk from this mix (unlike my pancake mix) to give people the freedom to use dairy free milks. We're currently using almond milk in our house, and it makes some lovely waffles.

Some of the variations I experimented with that had fabulous results...

As a healthy topping I blended defrosted frozen blueberries to make a sauce. It also works well with strawberries or raspberries.

As a dessert treat one night I wanted to make chocolate chip waffles- but we were out of chocolate chips. So I smashed up a bar of dark chocolate in a bag using a hammer and the results were amazing.

Another time I put the blueberries IN the waffles and then topped them with syrup. Delicious!

This mix means making waffles is so easy that we even have time for them in the morning before my daughter goes to preschool, despite how rushed we are. They are much cheaper and much tastier than boxed cereal!

Monday, September 17, 2012

I turned 35 today! I would be feeling old and depressed if I wasn't have such a lovely day and a lovely life lately.

We're lactose intolerant here, so we drink almond milk instead, which they sell in cases at Costco for half the price of the cartons at the grocery store. The problem is that my husband prefers chocolate milk, which isn't available at Costco. I was letting him buy the double priced cartons for a while, until he went and drank SIX of them in less than 48 hours. I knew I needed a better alternative, so...

Chocolate Milk Mix (big batch)

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

I combined my mix in an empty peanut butter jar (this is a half batch) so I could easily mix and store it without making any extra dishes. Once all the ingredients are in the jar, just put on the lid and shake it to mix them up.

To make it smooth, combine the mix with a little bit of hot water and stir before adding the milk. I used 2 tablespoons of mix and 2 tablespoons of water, then mixed in 1 cup of plain, unsweetened almond milk. Any type of milk will work, but make sure it's unsweetened so you don't go into a sugar coma.

The finished result tasted EXACTLY like the store bought versions of chocolate milk, even to my super picky husband. I just saved myself a crapload of money. I'm also hoping that actually having to mix each glass himself will slow down his consumption a little.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Sorry I didn't post earlier this week, but we were camping at the beach! Everyone thought we were crazy to bring a baby camping, but it turns out babies are very very easy to camp with! They are easily amused, can be worn to the beach or on hikes in a carrier and also will stay put when you put them somewhere. It's our 3 year old that was trying to bust out of the tent at night.

One of my husbands favorite camping foods (ok one of his favorite foods all the time) are baked potatoes. We wrap them in tin foil and put them in the coals of the camp fire until they are nice and cooked.

I wanted an easily portable topping that we could bring along, so I created...

Monday, September 3, 2012

It's September, and the days are slightly cooler. That means... slow cooking again! The other day we decided to take the girls out boating on the lake, and I knew that we would come home late and tired and tempted to order take out. So I filled up the crock pot before we left with...